Dear People of Kootenay,
Day 2 of the Lambeth Conference was a retreat day for the Bishops at Canterbury Cathedral. I have never been to Canterbury before, so simply being in the ancient building itself was amazing. A church has been here since 597, with the current Gothic building completed in 1070. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is the symbolic Mother Church of Anglicanism worldwide, and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury. We shared eucharist in the morning, in many languages from around the communion, and ended with a full choral evensong with the Cathedral choir.
We had three speakers, scholars on our conference Biblical text 1 Peter, and then spacious time for silent reflection in the Cathedral crypt, the many chapels, or on the Cathedral grounds. The whole place was closed to tourists for the day, so we had the luxury of quiet space.
Our first speaker for the retreat, the Rev. Dr. Isabelle Hamley (Theological Advisor to the English House of Bishops, Professor at King's College, London), spoke on 1 Peter and the invitation to a "living hope" based on who God is and what God has done. She sent us to ponder who Jesus is for us, this Jesus we love and follow.
She spoke of The book of Peter being a call to distinctive living, a call to holiness, marked by community relationships.
Pictured above: Professor Ester Mombo, Faculty of Theology, St. Paul's University in Limuru, Kenya, specialist in gender dispartity and gender justice in church and society, co-chair in Education Commission with the World Council of Churches. She challenged us with a reflection on mending the world. The book of 1 Peter finds broken relationships lead to a broken world:
1. Citizens and government
2. Employees and employers
3. Gender relationships
4. Believer and neighbour
5. Believer and God
She invited us to ponder the "holes in the world" in our context and the needed response: Recognize, Repent, Redeem and Restore. She used the example of the Zaccheus Project (Zaccheus the tax collector reimbursed all that he had robbed from people, with interest). The Zaccheus Project calls for a global tax and economic system that acts like Zaccheus, with visible proof of repentance, changing systems in the global village.
It was a fruitful and moving day, excellent preparation for the days of discussion ahead of us. I did a lot of journalling in the quiet of the Cathedral garden.
Thank you for your continued prayers for this Lambeth conference.